Biggers & Callaham Co.

Extraterrestrial aliens did not create the crop circles in the eight-acre North Georgia Corn Maze, but that does not make them any less spooky, especially for visitors who also take the hay ride to the haunted barn.

“We’ve added a thrill ride to the barn this year – it simulates falling down a shaft!” said Heath Biggers, a co-owner of the enterprise with business partner, John Callaham.

The seasonal maze and barn attractions, which usually open every Labor Day weekend, have become popular rites of autumn in White County since their inception in 2004. “We try to add new features every year to make the experience a little different from previous years,” Biggers said, noting that a screening area has been added to the maze to feature movies.

This enterprise is not the only highly unusual project developed by the Biggers & Callaham Company. The partners also breed reptiles and their prey for their year-round business, Mice Direct, a global distributor of a variety of rodents, chicks, and Turkish roaches to zoos, pet owners, and laboratories. They produce between 80,000 to 100,000 mice per week in an 11,000 square-foot warehouse and raise around 300 ball pythons at their site. “A bag of 50 mice will feed a snake for a year, and the frozen ones, which don’t require killing by the snake, help keep the reptile calmer,” said Biggers.

He developed an enthusiasm for exotic pets about 11 years ago, when he acquired some king snakes. “I realized how expensive they could be to feed, and that’s when I got this idea – to make my own food,” he said. “I realized if I had that need, that there must be a market for it.”

Biggers & Callaham has received two loans from ACE to purchase better caging to expand inventory. They since have supplied the Middle East’s largest zoo, in the United Arab Emirates, with rodents, as well as biological researchers and owners of raptors and other predators around the world.

“The assistance and expertise of the people at ACE were key to helping us move ahead to that next level,” Biggers said.

The haunted house ends November 9, and the maze is open until November 17.